The Everchanging World Wide Web...Can You Keep Up???

                                             

So many things to learn never enough time! Today's class was simply amazing and informative to say the least! Dr. Smirnova held another IROC conference in the beginning of class, a surprise to all of us! Our class was filled with 30-40 eager individuals wanting to know more about WEB 2.0!!!! Many examples of what topics were discussed are:  social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, and remixes. Let's get together and COLLABORATE!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful world of technology, and who better to teach us than Dr. Smirnova! One of the most unique points of this conference was the power point presentation used. Dr. Smirnova had the whole room learning together on individual computers, adding and editing items throughout the presentation!                                                                                                                                                         

Yes, all 30-40 attendees were typing into the presentation, and all responses were being shown on the main board! She even had friends around the world adding comments during this seminar! AMAZING! I knew Google Docs allowed you to collaborate with partners to do work apart from each other, I had no idea how huge this really was until this class!!!!!! Think about it! As a teacher, I can have my students all participate actively from their homes all at once on one central document or presentation! Truly an eye opening experience for myself as a future educator!
 
Another class where I left armed with more knowledge than when I first walked in!



                                                      

 

Let's Get it Popping......Or Not

       Last class we collaborated in groups conducting experiments with balloons. Dr. Smirnova demonstrated brushing on 'magic' blue water on top of a balloon, then poking the balloon with a needle and it not popping. It was up to the class to figure it out how and why!!!!

        This activity was really a lot of fun. My group conducted a total of 5 experiments. We tried to look at every aspect of how, what and why. We were given 5 balloons, a pin, and a beaker filled with 'magic' blue water with a wire brush inside of it.

       This activity was a way of Dr. Smirnova showing us as students what our students would be doing. She didn't give us any hints, just gave us the tools to solve the problem ourselves.

 

We had to form a hypothesis before we even got started. In the end, our hypothesis was proved to be wrong, and we discovered the liquid had nothing to do with it at all!!! It was the area of the balloon--either the top center or the bottom center of the balloon wouldn't make the balloon pop if that is where the pin is pushed in!!!!

                                                                  

          I am definitely excited to conduct experiments in my own classroom oneday!!  



                                  CLICK HERE!!!!! to see the PPT Presentation!!               

To Learn is.........hmmmmmmmm :/

Last class we discussed Bloom's Taxonomy, and the changes from nouns to verbs. We discussed this because this should be a guideline for us teachers while we are lesson planning. We discussed the 5 'E' Lessons Learning Cycle for how to plan properly to fully ensure our students are being instructed the best possible way: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, Evaluation.

 

Teachers new and old really need to take a look at their curriculum and utilize the tools that are available to all of us!!! Standing in front of a class lecturing is a thing of the past!

Be more effective-be more creative!!! The time is NOW to change the way you make your students think!!!!!

To give or not to give, that is the Question!

            Chapter three in our book made us really reflect upon teachers giving students the answers to problems while doing work and what kind of things students may be doing while completing assignments.

            Teachers are facilitators, they are mediators, they are there to scaffold their students learning. Teachers need to encourage their students to think and experiment with their work. Teachers need to let students know that having alternative conceptions is not such a bad thing! There are  no wrong answers!! The story about Mr. Wilson not letting the students know they were using the wrong procedure is a perfect example of this.

              He was there to guide them through the activity, by allowing them to have the freedom to explore and experiment on their own. If he had stopped and told them, he would be taking that freedom and exploration of their own ideas away from them. He is promoting the development of the children’s own ideas, not discourage them from doing their own thinking!!!!

Do students do what??????

YES THEY DO!!!!!!!!!

I myself, as a student, have written something in an essay and on an exam because I thought it was the answer the teacher wanted. I have done this numerous times, especially in two history classes I took. Both teachers were passionate about the areas of history they were teaching us about, and both had certain views which favored certain ideas. Naturally, I wrote about the things they showed favoritism for to be sure I got the grade. I believe this is very common for students to do.
 

Artifacts of nature are all around me!!!

I am surrounded by several types of trees; from them, I could bring in bark, seeds, leaves, branches etc.; science is everywhere!!!!!
It's even in you and me!!!!!!!!!

Think Outside the Box!

Chapter two in our text really makes you ponder on many things. The author wants the reader to know that a good science teacher is one who is 'hands on' and 'minds on'. She wants you to reach for things out of your reach and try to figure them out, utilizing a constructivist approach.
I know I have had my share of teachers with both positive and negative feelings towards a subject. I was lucky enough to have many who loved the subjects they taught though. I had wonderful math teachers who came alive when they taught the class, and science teachers who got so excited to speak about science! We were asked to think about times like these, to show us how it affected how we felt about the subjects based on how our teachers felt. This is what we as future teachers need to keep in mind! If you are positive and excited about a subject and use those feelings to drive your instruction, chances are you students will get excited too! If you are down and negative about the subject, then your class will be too! We need to be a positive influence for all of our students, to grab their attention, spark their interest, and keep them motivated!!!!

We were asked to explore women and minorities in science to expand our thinking, reminding us and to show us that science is not the stereotypical guy in a lab coat; we are ALL part of science, males-of any ethnicity, women, and children alike.


This chapter made me realize that I have had it all wrong all along. Science is not about the typical guy in a lab coat with goggles, it is a way of thinking, it is exploring our surroundings and looking for the answers to all types of questions.


The teacher wanted to stress all of the ideas above by asking us how we can explore nature ourselves. There are so many ways of exploring your surroundings. Go outdoors, take a look around, listen for different sounds, look for different creatures, feel all of the different textures that surround you!!!!

What every college student should know!!!!

For the second part of our class this week, Dr. Smirnova worked with us on the computer in the library. This was such a huge help! I am glad she gave us the opportunity to go through our sites and ask questions.


After she walked us through our WIKI sites on PbWorks, she gave us a quick little tutorial on Google tools. Did you know that Gmail is NOT just another email program???? I thought is was, until Thursday that is!!!! Dr. Smirnova showed us how it has email, chat (video, online, and phone), but it also has Google Docs. This is what every college student should know!!!

This program is built in your email and can be accessed anywhere you access your email! Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service. It enables you to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with others. Lets say you have to do a group project; you can chat on the right side of the screen and type your work in the middle-what you type appears on your partner's screen!!!!! They have tons of templates for almost EVERYTHING!!! You can even create multiple choice tests with this program!!!!!!

I am blown away! It is like having MS Office anywhere you need it only better!!!!! All of you papers, and presentations are stored right in your google docs--who needs a flash drive?! This program is amazing it does everything! If you haven't seen it yet you must check it out! I am on my third college degree, if only I knew about this in the first two!!!! Life changing for me! I am so excited about this technology!!! She exposed us to a part of technology that we will use regularly throughout our careers!

Think getting a degree is hard in the US? Try doing it in Russia!!!!!

For the first part of our class this week, we attended a presentation in the library, by a very bright scholar. She was a previous student of Dr. Smirnova, and was visiting our College from Russia. She had many credentials and was very impressive. She conducted a very well put together presentation about Research in Russia. She first went through all of the steps of doing research and thoroughly explained each one. She also had spoken about her 'formula' for conducting research successfully.


The end of her presentation was about education in Russia.  I was shocked. First of all, EVERYONE goes to some level of higher education after high school in Russia. Also, that higher education has been free for the students for years!!!!! The importance of education is obvious, most people live on the support of their parents until they are in their mid 20's. Everyone at the university level in Russia is required to do research. Whether you are in your first year or fifth year of the university, you have a research assignment throughout your higher education career.


Their rules are more strict over in Russia- for your PhD, you must write two dissertations, where here in the US, you only need to do one. Your first PhD is around 200 pages, your second PhD is 400-600 pages!!! They have a higher standard in Russia for higher education with a strong support system with the government and with families. She did mention that teachers were tremendously underpaid, but she believes that will be changing in the near future. I was very impressed by everything she spoke about, it was nice that Dr. Smirnova exposed us to this presentation to learn more about education in a different country. You know, you never really think about how things are in other countries until you hear someone talk about the differences. It must have been quite an adjustment for Dr. Smirnova to move here and become accustom to our education system, truly amazing to me!!!! 

Kind of makes you think twice before you start to complain about the school work you are asked to do doesn't it?